With a range of 5000km, the missile could reach the major Chinese cities of Beijing and
Shanghai - and it would take today's Agni-V just 20 minutes to travel from India's
Wheeler Island to a target somewhere in the Indian Ocean, near
Indonesia.

This highlights a dramatic increase in India's strike range in recent decades, leaping from 150km for Prithvi-I in 1988 to today's 5000km.

What is India's motivation? According to the BBC,
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said: "Today's launch represents
another milestone in our quest for our security, preparedness and to
explore the frontiers of science."

It is unclear whether the launch will affect space research, though. In the west during the mid-twentieth
century, missiles were the forerunners to rocket launchers capable of
placing satellites into space. India, however, has had a civilian launch
capability for decades. The first successful launch of an Indian space
rocket took place in 1980 and delivered the experimental Rohini
satellite into orbit.

The Agni-V missile is expected to be tested further before entering service in 2013-14.

3 Comments

So India launches a sophisticated, long-range, nuclear-capable missile in their quest for "security" and "preparedness" and nobody bats an eyelid. But when North Korea attempts to launch a poor-man's space rocket in order to launch a satellite the mainstream media yells "J'accuse!"

Fair enough, North Korea values its privacy - secrecy even - but that doesn't mean they have evil intentions, or that they would be capable of carrying out such imagined acts. And then when they do invite outsiders in, like Damian Grammaticas, all he has to talk about is insinuations and propaganda (paid for by UK TV license fee payers, no less).

Sorry that this is so off-topic but it really annoys me that we are spoon-fed bullsh*t by the MSM yet the first I've heard about India's missile is on the NewScientist website. Not that I begrudge India for what they are doing. Fill your boots, I say.

Jack
on April 20, 2012 12:22 PM

My thoughts exactly, Joe.

vikramsingh
on September 9, 2012 11:49 AM

India is a very great country and one day india's come on a 1st no become china